Palestinian Woman Speaks of Prison Abuse

A female Palestinian detainee has recounted how she was under continuous interrogation, intimidation, and abuse for 14 days by Israeli soldiers and interrogators.

Najwa Awni Abdul-Ghani told a Palestinian Prisoner Society (PPS) lawyer that on July 21, 2009, Israeli soldiers searched her family’s home for three hours. They caused damage to property, terrorized the family, and kidnapped her and her brother Salah.

During the search operation, the soldiers forced the family, including children and her elderly parents, out of their home in Saida town, near the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem.

Later, soldiers took her and her brother forcibly in two separate vehicles, she said, adding that she did not know the whereabouts of her brother.

She stated that she was taken first to the Sharon Prison and later to the al-Jalama interrogation center where she was interrogated, intimidated, and abused for 14 days.

She told the PPS lawyer that she was deprived of sleep and proper food. "The living conditions in the cells are very bad; the cells are dirty, smelly, lack ventilation and proper mattresses,” she said.

After 14 days, she was loaded, handcuffed and in leg-irons, onto a military vehicle and transferred to the al-Damoun prison, she added.

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